About Three People
by M-Maltesers
Summary: Dating Atobe requires more than just a lot of patience. It also requires meeting his mother. Future. Atobe Keigo and Fuji Yuuta. Follows 'Satisfaction' and 'About Us'.
1. About Three People

Notes: Slightly future AtoYuu :D Imagine one or two years ahead or so. Numbered scenes are not necessarily in chronological order so don't get confused :3 I also don't like the way FFnet has formatted it, so ignore the part where it chewed up the nice, neat gaps I had between scenes.

This technically stands alone because I wrote it that way, but there's another part that comes after this which follows it. Because I ♥ AtoYuu XD

**About Three People**

**By Miki**

One: The first time Yuuta meets Atobe's mother, he doesn't know what to make of her.

He's wearing one of Atobe's jumpers since the house is a lot colder than what he'd expected, and he's wearing the guest slippers and has a bleeding nose with a tissue stuffed up one nostril.

(S)

Two: Miyoko can be strict at times, but she only has one son, and he means the world to her. She recognises his habits and knows how he thinks and she's hard on him where her parents were soft on her; being far too indulgent and allowing her to grow up a spoilt, often impractical child.

Keigo isn't a child anymore and he rarely requires guidance, so when she sees Yuuta, she hides her instant urge to straighten up his clothes, tell him off for wearing mismatched colours and choosing slippers which, quite frankly, look like duck feet with the way he walks.

He has none of Keigo's grace on his feet; rather, he's a little awkward and tends to shuffle sometimes.

She likes him instantaneously though and can't help wanting to pet his head as she passes him by. He looks confused, but that only endears him to her all the more, and she spends the rest of the day wondering when Keigo acquired such a friend.

He makes a change from the boys he usually invites home, and he's certainly a lot more fun to play with. Especially when he later shoots his carrots off his plate at dinner.

(S)

Three: Yuuta isn't big on presents. When Atobe's birthday rolls around, he debates for a long time and ends up surveying his team mates for ideas, even if they don't understand that blow up dolls, phallic objects and video games are not suitable options. They don't know he's asking for Atobe's sake, so he ends up mulling the dilemma over some more before coming up blank.

(S)

Four: Miyoko doesn't go into her son's room all that often. They tend to limit themselves to organised conversations in the rooms downstairs, when Keigo isn't studying and when he isn't training out on the courts.

She's noticed Yuuta's increasingly in the house, yet it isn't until she notices some clothes out of place and on one of the chairs in Keigo's room that she realises just how much time he actually spends with her son.

She folds the clothes neatly, taking note of their rough sizes and noting the fact that Yuuta has a habit of borrowing Keigo's old jumpers; the ones he outgrew a few seasons ago.

She tells Keigo to take him shopping; take him out and buy him something nice.

He obliges, though he doesn't look that thrilled.

The week after the purchase of one rather expensive pullover, Miyoko notices Yuuta again when she goes up onto the second floor to look for a book she's lost.

Yuuta's wearing Atobe's jumper again.

Miyoko sighs and wonders if it can't be helped.

(S)

Five: It turns out that Atobe's birthday celebration has been booked for the week after his actual birthday so Yuuta doesn't really expect to see him on the day itself.

He also doesn't expect to be receiving a present when he's supposed to be giving one instead.

He blinks as he opens the box Atobe's handed to him. Its contents are green and white slippers; the same style as the blue and white ones Atobe currently has – though Yuuta knows he has about fifty pairs of shoes in his closet and probably has more than ten pairs of slippers as well – and though Yuuta isn't sure he likes the colour, he does like the way they sit right next to Atobe's in the coat room near the front door.

He likes the fact that the butler brings them when he walks into the house with Atobe, and he likes the fact that when Atobe gets bored of his and buys a new red pair – solid colours are in fashion, not pastels, he tells Yuuta – he buys another matching pair for Yuuta as well.

Most of all, Yuuta likes kicking off his slippers.

He likes sitting on the edge of Atobe's bed and kicking off the things, waiting for Atobe's huff and incensed look when he sees them on the floor and not lined up parallel to the bedside table instead.

He likes the fact that Atobe actually lines them up himself and then frowns at him in disapproval, though they both know he doesn't really care about the slippers at all.

(S)

Six: Atobe needs his space.

He gets crabby at times, loses his temper, snaps at people, snaps for no reason or for silly little ones, sulks, muses and thinks things over and wonders why he has to like someone like Yuuta.

Yuuta's someone who snaps back and Atobe wonders if they have more in common than he usually likes to think.

Yet when Yuuta first stays the night and spends an awkward time at one side of Atobe's bed, looking as though he's sleeping on a bed of nails, Atobe sighs, sits up and turns on the light.

It's one in the morning and he knows Yuuta can't have slept at all.

The bed is huge, but Yuuta's right at the opposite edge, almost about to fall off.

It takes a lot to convince Yuuta that his mother isn't going to walk in in the morning, nor is anyone else and no, Mizuki does not have x-ray vision and Yuuta's mother isn't going to know what they do with each other.

It's nearly three in the morning by the time Atobe's satisfied with their sleeping arrangements.

Yuuta falls asleep, curled up against Atobe and grumbling at him for having hard collarbones. Atobe has to hold back his retorts, wanting to point out that bones are indeed hard, because wouldn't humans be rather like jellyfish without them? As much as he likes Yuuta, he doesn't think he'd like Yuuta as a jellyfish.

Yuuta's warm, and having someone else in the bed makes it suddenly feel a whole lot smaller, but Atobe doesn't mind.

He thinks he and Yuuta fit perfectly and he almost wants to tell Yuuta so, except that Yuuta's snoring.

Atobe's used to silence, but he really doesn't mind sharing his space after all.

(S)

Seven: Miyoko opens her son's bedroom door. It's eight in the morning but she's looking for her book still and she's quite sure it must be somewhere in Keigo's room.

She sees it on Yuuta's side of the bed and walks in, trying to be as quiet as possible.

Yuuta's asleep, curled up facing Keigo, who looks a little cold and uncomfortable with an arm out of the bed covers and resting across Yuuta's shoulders.

Miyoko hesitates, then pulls up the quilt properly and adjusts Keigo's arm, knowing he'll probably wake up and complain vigorously about needing to see a physio if she doesn't. He's a fussy child; she knows, and sometimes she wonders if he's too fussy for his own good; too used to getting what he wants when he wants it without putting effort in in return.

Then she ruffles his hair, and Yuuta's too, retrieves her book and walks back out, being careful to click the door shut.

.tbc.


	2. Three Plus One and a Half

Notes: Numbered scenes are not necessarily in chronological order so don't get confused :3 I also don't like the way FFnet has formatted it, so ignore the part where it chewed up the nice, neat gaps I had between scenes.

**Three Plus One and a Half**

**By Miki**

Eight: Yuuta walks back into Atobe's room and closes the door, leaning back against it. "I just met your mother," he says, swallowing.

Atobe turns around from his desk to look at him. "Oh? What did she say?"

Yuuta rolls his eyes up to the ceiling, looking distinctly uncomfortable. His nose is still bleeding and he can feel it so it's no use trying to take out the tissue just to look a little less stupid.

"She looked at me and said… 'You must be Yuuta' and then-"

He stops, interrupted by Atobe's laughter.

"It's not funny!" he snaps, half-upset and just a little bit desperate. That wasn't at all how he'd wanted to meet Atobe's mother! Not that he'd really thought about it, but had he had a choice, he wouldn't have opted for the tissue up the nose! He hadn't even known Atobe's mother was in the house.

Atobe tries to stifle his laughter and fails miserably, ending up doubled over in his chair.

Yuuta twitches, finally stomping his foot childishly and walking back out the door again.

Atobe laughs until he has tears seeping out of the corners of his eyes and he thinks he's going to die because his stomach hurts that much.

He starts laughing at Yuuta again over dinner and only the disbelieving look on one of the butler's faces stops him.

He clears his throat and even manages to keep a straight face when Yuuta sends a chunk of carrot flying into his mother's dress.

Nine: Atobe dislikes Sago. He dislikes her masses of fur and her horridly sharp claws. He dislikes the memories he associates with her and the smell that she leaves on the chairs where she sits, though mostly he dislikes the way his father spends more time with the cat than he does with him.

Yuuta encounters Sago by stepping on her tail by accident.

She sinks her claws into his leg and yowls. Yuuta's yell is even louder though and more distinctive and Atobe comes running from the hallway, just about ready to throttle the cat when he sees blood oozing out of Yuuta's leg.

Yuuta looks as though he can't quite believe he has holes in his leg and Miyoko almost loses her temper with the cat too. The blood from Yuuta's cuts drips down onto the carpet before he's recovered enough to realise it's doing so.

Miyoko calculates the cleaning costs at less than what her husband paid for the stupid cat in the first place.

Ten: Later, Miyoko watches her son sulking from a distance, understanding perfectly why he feels so dejected yet finding it too amusing to want to do anything about it. It doesn't feel so long ago that she too, sulked over little things when she had disagreements with Keigo's father.

Keigo's leaning in the doorway of the kitchen, watching as Yuuta pets Sago's back, apparently having forgiven her rather quickly for the fact that he's now sporting a bandage around his leg.

Keigo's back and shoulders and the lines of his long legs remind Miyoko of Shigeru, and of the first time she found herself meeting her future husband and feeling only gratitude and relief that he wasn't ten years older than she and that he really was a normal human being.

Eleven: Atobe's dislike of Sago is doubled when Yuuta gets into bed that night and Atobe can _smell_ Sago all over him. It gets up his nose and he snaps, telling Yuuta that he needs to shower or he won't be able to sleep the entire night.

Yuuta looks at him, a look of hurt on his face.

Then he gets out of the bed and picks up his book from the bedside table. He doesn't look at Atobe as he shuffles his feet into his slippers and then walks to the door, opening it, slipping out and closing it again.

Atobe's too ashamed to get out of bed and go after him but when he wakes up in the morning, there's a pair of arms around him and his back feels warm.

He notices Yuuta ignores Sago at breakfast time, even when she rubs herself all over and between his legs and purrs like he's never heard her purr before.

Twelve: Miyoko's never considered asking Keigo to marry, although she's always expected that he would and that he would choose appropriately; that he would choose someone she liked. She'd always watched the way he treated her friends' daughters and sons, anticipating the day he might come home and tell her he was getting married. She expected he'd do it over a cup of tea, perhaps in the garden or in one of the drawing rooms. She expected him to do it with a calm look and a slight smile on his face.

She had expected it to be Harumi at one stage.

Yet she realises, watching him, that what she'd never realised before was that she was making a mistake in assuming he'd ever marry at all.

She remembers the moment she decided she wouldn't have any more children after Keigo. She remembers it and she isn't sorry for making that decision. Not even when she walks past the library late at night and sees two shadows in there; one just slightly taller than the other but both pressed up against a bookshelf, clearly engaged in doing something other than reading.

She has trouble looking Yuuta in the eyes the following morning, yet it isn't because she's angry.

Thirteen: Shigeru holds out his hand, a stern expression on his face.

Yuuta hadn't expected to shake his hand and the gesture surprises him. He tries to return Shigeru's firm grip but he can't help but feel afterwards that he doesn't measure up to all of Atobe's father's expressions. He feels small and little, and young and he feels lacking.

He doesn't understand the stock market, nor does he know the companies that Atobe and his father are talking about.

All he understands is that Miyoko smiles across at him and he feels ashamed. He feels as though he's let her down somehow, even though Atobe's hand strays to his thigh a few times during the meal and the gesture comforts him a little.

Fourteen: Shigeru is a lot like Keigo.

He sees instantly that Yuuta isn't like his son's other friends. He has neither the background nor the education that so many of the boys at Hyoutei do. He looks almost timid at the dinner table at times, but Shigeru wonders if it isn't much nicer than having a loudmouthed smartarse like Oshitari Yuushi to dinner instead.

They have dinner at one of the hotels in the city.

Keigo tells him that he and Yuuta are going to walk around for a while afterwards before they head home. He'll call for his driver when they want to go, so he tells his parents to take the liberty of leaving and not waiting for them.

Shigeru sees the way his son's hand nearly strays to Yuuta's shoulder before he pulls it back down again quickly, linking his own hands behind his back.

Miyoko can't help it. Shigeru touches the back of her head lightly and she turns her face in towards his chest, leaning against him.

He can feel his shirt becoming wet with her tears.

Fifteen: "Hey, Sago…" Yuuta beckons, sitting down on the floor outside Atobe's father's study. He doesn't want to go in because that would be a clear violation of privacy, and sometimes he doesn't feel completely comfortable in this house anyway, but he can see Sago on the office chair and he wants some company.

It's dark in the hallway.

Atobe's asleep and Yuuta's mind is anything but.

Sago eventually comes to him, but not before making him wait a good ten minutes by himself; toes cold and making him wish for his own bedroom at home. He wonders what Syuusuke is doing; whether he's asleep yet or not.

Atobe's father is still at his office in the city even though it's after midnight. Yuuta can't help but be glad for it because he doesn't think he can face the man today.

He feels guilty and he feels awkward watching Atobe's parents together, knowing that he's never going to be a daughter in law to them. He isn't a woman; he never will be. He's just a kid, really.

Sixteen: Shigeru's feet hurt. He walks down the hallway to his office and startles when he sees a shadow outside his door.

Sago purrs, not moving from her spot next to Yuuta but staring up at Shigeru as though asking him to pick her up and say hello.

Shigeru isn't quite sure what to do with Yuuta.

It's only when he stirs and wakes up that Shigeru puts down his briefcase and squats, peering at him and wondering why exactly he's outside his office in the middle of the night.

In the dim light he can just make out wet marks on Yuuta's face and he realises the boy has been crying.

"Atobe-san?" Yuuta asks groggily.

Shigeru smiles a little, awkwardly, pulling out a handkerchief from his pocket.

He ignores the way Yuuta protests as he wipes his face, remembering the few times he did it for Keigo when he was a child.

Yuuta's lower lip trembles for a moment and before Shigeru knows it, Yuuta's crying again and Shigeru's instincts have kicked into gear.

An hour later, Keigo stumbles down the hallway, looking worried when he sees Yuuta and Shigeru on the floor.

Yuuta's a heavy weight in Shigeru's arms and Shigeru's legs have long since gone numb. He isn't used to sitting on the floor and it's hardly good for his back at his age.

"What are you-"

Shigeru cuts off Keigo's question with a hand gesture and Keigo kneels down, noticing that Yuuta's asleep.

He can't move from where he is without waking Yuuta, so he clears his throat and looks away a little uncomfortably as Keigo's hands go to Yuuta's cheeks and hair first, saying his name with a tenderness Shigeru's forgotten his son possesses.

Seventeen: Miyoko wonders for a moment if it's a phase.

She can hear Keigo telling Yuuta off for asking something silly, though, she wonders, it's probably likely Keigo doesn't actually appreciate that the communication between them goes two ways. He's slower to anger and faster to apologise than he was a year or two ago. It could be that he's getting over the worst of his teenage years, Miyoko thinks, but it's more likely the fact that he understands people better now.

"I notice Keigo didn't finish off his breakfast," Shigeru observes, sitting down next to her.

It's a Sunday, but he still can't help bringing business to the table outside, piling on four business magazines and picking up the top one, flicking through and glancing at her over the top of it.

Miyoko runs a hand through her hair. "No, that was Yuuta," she says. "He doesn't seem to like the way Saikawa cooks eggs."

"Oh?" Shigeru says, noting the slight displeasure on his wife's face.

"But he'll eat them when Keigo cooks," Miyoko muses, suddenly smiling again, pride in her smile.

Shigeru drops his magazine. "Keigo cooks?" he asks, turning to stare at his son and Yuuta, disappearing further into the rose garden.

Miyoko gives him a knowing smile. "I was surprised too."

"I…" Shigeru trails off, yawning.

Miyoko doesn't ask him why he's so tired. She lets him fix the strands of hair she's put out of place by playing with it so much, and she notices a few more lines under his eyes.

She's glad Keigo's happy.

She likes Yuuta, and suddenly she realises that it's not about marriage or gender at all. All she's ever wanted was for Keigo to be happy. She'd wanted to apply her own formula to his life, yet as it turns out, she never did have to worry because it looks as though he's found his own.

Eighteen: "Hey, your dad's in this," Yuuta says, waving Atobe's magazine at him.

"I know," Atobe yawns, and rolls over onto his back, taking up the centre of the bed next to Yuuta.

They're on top of the covers.

It's four in the afternoon and he can hear Sago clawing at his door – a new found habit which he despises and which he blames entirely on Yuuta.

"He looks a lot like you," Yuuta says, putting the magazine aside and propping himself on his elbow, looking Atobe carefully in the eyes.

"How so?" Atobe asks, raising an eyebrow, almost annoyed.

Yuuta thinks of the wrinkle lines on Shigeru's face and tries to imagine them on Atobe's. The result makes him want to laugh though he manages not to, screwing up his face in an expression that only confuses Atobe.

"You look silly," Atobe says, moving across and trying to tug Yuuta a little closer with one arm. "Move," he sulks, reminded of the fact that Yuuta never seems to do what he wants him to.

Yuuta refuses to budge. "You move," he retorts, a scowl on his face.

Atobe shakes his head. "Why is it so hard for you to do it?" he questions, frowning slightly.

Yuuta stares back at him, about to argue back when Atobe hears another scratch at the door and snaps.

He jumps up off the bed, stalks over to the door and opens it wide, glaring at Sago.

She ignores him, trots into the room, jumps onto his bed and finds Yuuta's arms a more than welcome place to snuggle up and rub herself all over him.

Atobe snorts. "Stupid cat."

"I think she has good taste," Yuuta teases, sitting up and pushing her off him.

"You think?" Atobe snorts, insulted. He sits back down on the bed, picking up Yuuta's discarded magazine. His father's face doesn't look anything like his, he thinks.

Yuuta's arms are around his chest before he realises it and his lips are warm against the back of Atobe's neck.

"I think I have better taste," he says.

Atobe lets himself lean back, ignoring Sago's insistent purring, knowing she's probably annoyed that Yuuta's suddenly ignoring her. He feels smug for it, and turns his head to kiss Yuuta's lips properly, liking the way they feel against his; liking the way their lips seem to fit so perfectly together.

He wonders when Yuuta learnt to say such things, though he isn't about to disagree at all.

.fin.


End file.
